


normal people

by softbebe



Series: always ends soft [7]
Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-15
Updated: 2017-08-15
Packaged: 2018-12-15 14:30:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11807865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softbebe/pseuds/softbebe
Summary: If they weren't idols, he would ask Minhyuk out.





	normal people

**Author's Note:**

> before we get spicy, i had to take things the other direction. the angst tag makes it's first appearance! it's not too heavy, but it's a theme that'll show up again in a few later parts. i think hoseok would be the type to overthink things... the series title still applies though, i like my softness. just want to thank everyone who's been enjoying these so far! they really are a great unwinding exercise. also i'm half-asleep right now in case you can't tell by my rambling, so i hope this one isn't too much of a mess. next chapter = spicy (i know that's what most people are waiting for, haha)

The little girl comes running up to them when they’re on a walk. One of their staff trails not too far behind them, but they haven’t been spotted by any fans yet. The roads here are quiet, in this part of the world they’re visiting for the first time. Hoseok feels like he can really breathe.

The girl seems to come out of nowhere, an ice cream cone brandished in one hand, a headband with little ladybug antennae slipping sideways on her head. She’s smiling gleefully, and stops in front of Minhyuk, barely reaching past his knees. She says something neither of them understands, but her meaning is pretty clear – she holds the ice cream cone up toward him.

Minhyuk looks at Hoseok for a moment, eyes round with wonder. Then he crouches down in front of this little girl, says hello, asks her where her family is.

The girl’s parents come out of the park just then, apologizing profusely. And though they don’t speak Korean either, Hoseok gets the gist. Minhyuk does too, waving aside their fretting with a beaming smile. The little girl is still holding her ice cream cone toward him, says something insistently. Chocolate drips down her arm and onto the sidewalk.

“Ah, can I really have some?” Minhyuk asks, pointing to her ice cream. She nods, pushes it closer to his face.

“Thank you!” he says brightly, and he takes a small bite. “Mm, delicious!” He says this part in English, though that’s not a language any of them speak either.

She giggles. Satisfied, she turns and runs back toward her parents, who watch fondly.

“Bye bye!” Minhyuk calls, waving his hands. He stands and waves to the parents also, bows a little bit. They smile back, then usher their daughter back into the park.

It’s a brief exchange, but enough for Hoseok’s heart to double in size. They carry on their walk like nothing happened, but he’s stuck on the image of Minhyuk crouched in front of the little girl, the look of pure joy on his face as he took a bite of her ice cream and she laughed.

He’s going to be an amazing father one day, Hoseok knows.

He can almost picture it – Minhyuk with children of his own. Stooping down with his arms open, two of them running into his embrace. He’d pick them both up at once, swing them around. Hoseok hears phantom laughter. It’s a beautiful scene.

The way he pictures it, he almost feels like he’s a part of it. Like Minhyuk will look up and meet his eyes, will beckon him over with a smile.

This is where Hoseok forces the daydream to end, like a television turned suddenly off. It’s ridiculous, and way too soon, not even something he’s ready for or wants right now.

Still, it’s a seductive thought. A future with Minhyuk. Heat shoots through him, something like longing and fear mixed into one.

That’s enough of that.

Minhyuk takes out his phone to snap a few pictures of the low-hanging branches they’re passing by, arching over the stone wall. Beneath the leaves are bundles of red berries, like hidden jewels. He says something about how pretty they are, and Hoseok hums an agreement, but he’s just watching the way Minhyuk's eyelashes flutter together when he blinks.

If they weren’t idols, if they were just normal people who didn’t exist within the sphere of fame they inhabit, he would ask Minhyuk out. For real, explicitly.

It’s not that he isn’t happy with what they have. But he’d want to do things properly, if he ever could. He’d say something like, _Please go out with me,_ or _Will you be my boyfriend?_

Just thinking either sends the butterflies in his stomach into a frenzy, like they’ve been caught in a whirlwind. It’s silly because they’re well past the point that either of those things could be asked. He doesn’t even know what the answer would be, if he asked Minhyuk to apply either retroactively.

Minhyuk meets his eyes, lowers his phone. “Hyung, take a picture with me.”

Hoseok stands beside him, their backs to the stone wall. Minhyuk steps close and holds his phone up above their heads, holds up one of the branches with the pretty red berries between their faces. Hoseok smiles for the camera, thoughts a million miles away.

They haven’t talked about this kind of thing – about relationship kinds of things – at all, because it’s not like they’re allowed to be doing what they’re doing. They’re bending the rules already. It’s nothing as simple as being boyfriends or going out. It’s nothing like that at all.

It’s everything like that.

Hoseok doesn’t know. He doesn’t like to think about it. He thinks about it too much.

* * *

“You kept staring at me today,” Minhyuk says.

They’re getting ready to go out. The group will be meeting up in twenty minutes and then heading to a nearby restaurant for dinner. Minhyuk’s checking himself over, straightening the collars of his shirt, but he pauses to meet Hoseok’s eyes in the mirror.

“We were on a walk together,” Hoseok says. He’s sitting on the bed, watching Minhyuk go through his routine.

“Yeah, but you stared at me more than anything else.” A knowing smirk.

Hoseok gets to his feet. “That’s because I like looking at you. Come on, you’re ready. Let’s go to Hyunwoo’s room.”

He hooks his arm around Minhyuk’s waist to steer him toward the door, but Minhyuk stands surprisingly firm and says, “Hyung.”

It’s his no-nonsense tone. Hoseok closes his eyes, and Minhyuk says, “Just spit it out already.”

Standing there with his eyes closed, Hoseok knows this can go one of two ways. He can be direct, or he can skirt around it. He has so many excuses for the latter – _Come on, I’m hungry; You’re imagining things, it’s been a long day; You were cute with that kid, that’s all._ As long as he keeps his eyes closed, he doesn’t have to decide. The moment will stay suspended. At least, it feels that way.

But better sooner rather than later, he decides. He turns toward Minhyuk, opens his eyes. Sees the perplexed little frown on Minhyuk’s face. He lets out a breath, dives in head-first.

“If we were just two normal people, just me and you and we knew each other and liked each other but we weren’t groupmates and we weren’t idols, and I asked you to go out with me, would you say yes?”

Minhyuk’s eyebrows shoot up. This obviously wasn’t what he was expecting. He gives Hoseok a level look, though, really thinking the question over and taking it seriously. This much, Hoseok can be thankful for.

“But we aren’t just normal people,” Minhyuk eventually says. His collar is still a little bit crooked. He wouldn’t be satisfied with the part of his hair if he gave it one more look in the mirror. He hasn’t put on his cologne yet. He’d complain about how tired he looks. For a second, he’s just a normal person – a normal man about to go to a casual dinner. It’s such an enticing image.

“I know,” Hoseok says, forcing himself to smile, light and easy like this is all some silly thing he just thought of. “But _if_. What would you say?”

Minhyuk takes Hoseok’s face in his hands, looks him straight in the eyes. He’s always been able to see right through him.

Hoseok’s smile falls immediately. He swallows. _Just kidding,_ he wants to say. _Don’t answer, it’s not important, I wasn’t being serious._

“Of course I would say yes.”

The words are barely louder than a whisper. It takes several long seconds for their meaning to seep through the panic in Hoseok’s brain, and when they do, he makes a little sound. Something like an _Oh._

Minhyuk kisses him softly. “But we aren’t normal people, hyung. We’re idols, you know.”

The touch of Minhyuk’s lips leaves tingles on Hoseok's own. “I know,” he says. They have their group to protect, first and foremost. There’s a slight furrow between Minhyuk’s brows, and there’s probably a similar one between his own. Everything feels suddenly so heavy, even though he got the answer he was hoping for.

Minhyuk kisses him again, then pulls back just far enough to speak, their noses and foreheads touching. Hoseok keeps his eyes closed.

“If we weren’t idols, I would have waited for you to ask me out.” Minhyuk pauses, cradles Hoseok’s face just a little bit more firmly, palms cupping Hoseok’s jaw. His voice is quiet, reminiscing. “I used to do that, way back before debut and everything. If I knew we liked each other and it took them longer than a month, then I promised myself I’d ask them, but I was always too scared. So in this alternate universe, you’d have to be the brave one and do it.”

“I would,” Hoseok says. “I really would.”

Minhyuk quirks a smile against his mouth.

“So then I’d say yes.”


End file.
